An Admittedly Stupid Start to My Day… QuikClot Works!

An Admittedly Stupid Start to My Day… QuikClot Works!

My day starts around 5 a.m. every morning because I like to workout first thing when I’m fresh and it gives me a great start to the day. This means it’s still dark outside and I typically walk through a dark house while performing morning rituals.

So thinking I was Batman and could see in the dark, I went into our master bathroom to put something away. Walking barefoot, I stepped just the right way on a right angle corner of molding and it went right into my foot.

It pushed the skin on the pad of my foot completely away creating a sizable flapper. At first I didn’t think I could have possibly messed myself up until I started to feel it and sat down on the ledge of the bathtub.

I turned my foot over to take a look, and blood started gushing out of my foot. I’m not talking running, but gushing. It was actually impressive how much blood I started to lose.

After rolling my eyes thinking about how my wife was going to kill me for bleeding all over her bathroom rug, I grabbed some gauze from the bathroom drawer and started applying pressure. After realizing that the pressure wasn’t stopping the bleeding, I decided to throw some fresh gauze on, wrap it with a nearby ace bandage and hobble myself to my med bag where I had some QuikClot Combat Gauze.

As much as I hated using it for something as stupid as splitting my foot open on molding; I grabbed it and quickly took the ace bandage and gauze off to apply it. I’ve never personally been involved in any live tissue training where QuikClot was used and this was the first chance I’ve had to see it in action; let me tell you, it works!

Blood had already soaked all the way through the ace wrap and onto the floor of the bathroom when I removed it to apply the Combat Gauze on top of all the blood. It literally stopped the substantial capillary bleeding in less than a minute.

Unfortunately, since the injury was a flapper, all I have is the photo you see included. While I only probably lost about 5 ml of blood and my accident wound up not being very manly, I still wanted to share the experience I had with QuikClot.

So there’s my totally inglorious story, back to gimping around…

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Discussion

Nice! and its not a purse, its a messenger bag (and the message is; youre wearing a purse!). anyway, its a good thing to know that the stuff works, but come to think of it, the reason it was bleeding was it was lower than any other part of your body. gravity is a bitch sometimes, heh?

My father was on blood thinners for a long time, and I bought him packets of Celox when it was new to carry around. Very similar situation -- for him, it was stumbling against a raw edge of sheet metal. It was pretty similar to your wound, and would have been a Big Deal with his blood thinners. Pullted the top, sprinkled the powder, it made a nearly instant crust, and everything was OK.

Given that experience, I think I would get impregnated gauze now instead of the little powder packets.

(And when his hematologist found out, he started recommending it for all his patients.)

My father was on blood thinners for a long time, and I bought him packets of Celox when it was new to carry around. Very similar situation -- for him, it was stumbling against a raw edge of sheet metal. It was pretty similar to your wound, and would have been a Big Deal with his blood thinners. Pullted the top, sprinkled the powder, it made a nearly instant crust, and everything was OK.
Given that experience, I think I would get impregnated gauze now instead of the little powder packets.
(And when his hematologist found out, he started recommending it for all his patients.)

wow man that sounds like you need more then that to fix it did you ever got to the hospital to have them fix the hole up well i have a chin story but we wont go there and alot more retarded wounds ive done in my past...but nice story i loved reading it

Re: failure drill's post above mine, I have some quick clot sport in my bag that i picked up for under 10 bucks from a buddy. think i saw it at the camping store for about $12.

Bryan thanks for the review, I've been carrying some of this stuff around for a while for just this type of pseudo-emergency. I was wondering if it burned on application though. Someone told me thats what you should expect even with "non-burning" formulas

Re: failure drill's post above mine, I have some quick clot sport in my bag that i picked up for under 10 bucks from a buddy. think i saw it at the camping store for about $12.
Bryan thanks for the review, I've been carrying some of this stuff around for a while for just this type of pseudo-emergency. I was wondering if it burned on application though. Someone told me thats what you should expect even with "non-burning" formulas

Great story! I have a similar incident where i employed the use of quikclot. My uncle has various heart conditions so he is on coumadin which is an anticoagulant or blood thinner. While cooking one night he put a sizeable slit in the end of his finger, not stitch worthy but descent none the less. The bleeding kept oozing out for 4 hours and when direct pressure failed i said screw it, booked it to the local REI and picked up a pack of quikclot sport... 2 minutes after application and pressure, the bleeding stopped. Stuff works

Over the summer a friend who is on Plavix and Aspirin got a nose bleed, after about an hour (I didn't know his nose was bleeding) I finally saw he had used almost a box of Kleenex and lost probably 200cc's or more of blood with no end in sight I had a QC 4x4 gauze pad, rolled it up stuck it in his nose and bam stopped the bleeding almost instantly, I had an extra pad and gave it to him for later just in case. Plavix and Aspirin are blood thinners and inhibit the clotting process within the body...I am a believer!

Stupid is having chest pain and toughing it out for a day or two, until the heart attack has totally annihilated most of you heart function.

What wound is glorious? Would it be better to get a chance to apply the QuickClot to a stab or GSW? I'd probably feel a bit foolish getting such an injury (cutting foot in the house), but would you really want it to be worse? Direct pressure didn't work, hard to elevate your foot and treat at the same time. Sounds like the hemostatic agent was just the thing. Plus, would you have used it on something before it expired otherwise?

Stupid is having chest pain and toughing it out for a day or two, until the heart attack has totally annihilated most of you heart function.
What wound is glorious? Would it be better to get a chance to apply the QuickClot to a stab or GSW? I'd probably feel a bit foolish getting such an injury (cutting foot in the house), but would you really want it to be worse? Direct pressure didn't work, hard to elevate your foot and treat at the same time. Sounds like the hemostatic agent was just the thing. Plus, would you have used it on something before it expired otherwise?

Hey you used medical supplies to fix a wound. Nothing stupid about that. I felt stupid after I rushed to the E.R. After my chest pains just turned out to be my first ever case of indigestion. I told the Doc that I felt stupid coming in and he told me "That's not stupid, coming in with a bottle stuck in your ass is stupid." I guess it's

Hey you used medical supplies to fix a wound. Nothing stupid about that. I felt stupid after I rushed to the E.R. After my chest pains just turned out to be my first ever case of indigestion. I told the Doc that I felt stupid coming in and he told me "That's not stupid, coming in with a bottle stuck in your ass is stupid." I guess it's
All relative.

Good on you for at least knowing what to do, and yes using the quick clot to save your wifes bathroom rug is what it's for. It may not always be glorious but no need to save stuff for the "Good" wounds.

Avulsion not Flapper, jeez!
Good on you for at least knowing what to do, and yes using the quick clot to save your wifes bathroom rug is what it's for. It may not always be glorious but no need to save stuff for the "Good" wounds.
"Doc"

Yeah, yeah... "Bryan is always screwing himself up." This is true... In the past year I've had a nasty hamstring pull while doing sprints and rolled the hell out of my ankle so bad I damaged ligaments.

just goes ta show how vulnerable we can be in our own environment. good save with the quick-clot, in hard times this could lead to a critical situation.. i recommend CS, change socks twice a day or more if ya can.